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Saturday, August 14, 2010

Dibble and Women - WOW

Sunday a.m. update - Rob Dibble's blog Harder to tell with written rather than spoken words but I'm going to label it sincere

Sunday p.m. update - now we have an on-air apology delivered. I still don't like his cheering over Bob's calls but it would be less than gracious not to accept the apology for this one and move on. So apology accepted. Moving on.

Wednesday night was the night I turned the game off early to watch Top Chef, which hacked me off more than the Nats game did (no spoilers, though, in case you taped it).

Should have stayed with the game. Or maybe not. My wife might still be screaming, as well she should.

I didn't watch on Thursday because I was at the game, waiting out the rain delay in the bar and then listening to the end after the kids and I bailed early. I didn't watch last night as I was driving home from the AOL offices.

So I don't know if it has been addressed on air. Has it? If not, it should be. Has MASN said anything? Apologies? Anything? Bueller? Bueller?

My wife goes to a lot of games. She keeps score, in a Bob Carpenter Scorebook (Bob is blameless here, my point is the woman I married pays attention and pays attention to the people in the booth). My daughter goes to a lot of games. She went back with some friends last night. She knows baseball, knows the Nats almost as well as I do.

My sister and sister-in-law go to more games than I do, and I'd put their knowledge of the Nats up against anyone's.

I can't believe Dibble will be able to get any with what sounds like smug insults of a good portion of the fan base. Sexist and stupid, those comments.

My guess is, like most who make sexist and stupid comments, he meant zero harm. I don't think Rob Dibble is sexist or stupid. He just didn't think before he opened his yap. He thought he was being funny. Like a lot of times Dibble thinks he is being funny, he missed badly.

I hope his arrogance doesn't get in the way of making a proper apology. Not a forced apology, mandated by the brass. A real, live apology. (If one has been made already, then I offer a proper apology). You can tell the difference easily.

Very eager to see what happens with this one. If something already has happened, please clue me in.

5 comments:

I didn't hear it (I was at that game) but from all I've seen written about it the only thing Dibble did was comment on two women who were sitting in expensive seats and clearly paying no attention to the game - and for an extended period of time at that. He surmised that they were possibly talking about shopping and such. Well, duh. That's a pretty good guess as to what two women might talk about, wouldn't you say? As far as I've heard, he never extended his remarks to imply that ALL women are like that. Carpenter was apparently the one who was trying to pull him out beyond just these two women, but he doesn't seem to have taken the bait on that.

Basically, it seems to me that this was a pretty innocent exchange between announcers trying to make a boring game interesting. And it was a very boring game. If the camera had sat on me for any amount of time, it would have caught me looking at my iPhone a lot. If the camera had sat on two guys sitting behind the plate and chatting throughout the game while clearly not paying any attention to it, Dibble could just as easily have said "Look at those two guys there. Probably talking about their golf game." Would that have been sexist? If Dibble's comments about women shopping were sexist, I suppose you'd have to say yes, wouldn't you? But would men be offended at that?

I'm amazed at the many women online who are up in arms over this. Don't they realize that Dibble is a jock, and for that matter so are all these guys playing the game that they're fans of? What do they expect, anyway? They need to read Jim Bouton's Ball Four and Dirk Hayhurst's The Bullpen Gospels and learn for themselves what this sport they're a fan of was, is and will always be like. It's not going to change, so they should probably quit getting upset by it.

One thing I haven't heard commented upon in this whole thing: with the team drawing so poorly, just how smart is it for their announcer to being making fun of ANYBODY willing to pay $300 a seat to be at the stadium whether he's being sexist about it or not?

The lack of an apology is what's telling for me. Clearly, Dibble upset a portion of the fanbase. Clearly, this team cannot afford to alienate any more of their fans. Do they really just not care?

I agree with the first poster. This was not a generalization of ALL women baseball fans. Just these two. And I completely agree that if it was two men chatting and not watching the game, Dibble probably would have said "hey, they're having a great convo about golf" and I don't think it would have been sexist. I think people are up in arms because he used a stereotype. Big deal. What if he said they were talking about their hairstylists or getting there nails done, something else that women do disproportionately over men. Would that have been sexist too? These women went to a game and didn't watch it for one second. They deserved to be poked fun at. Chill out people.

Disclaimer: I did not see the clip or that portion of the game (I'd gone to bed by then). I've read the Bog's original take on it, and a couple of other posts taking Dibble to task.

I'm a female fan who is fairly knowledgeable about the game...and who likes to shop. I also consider myself to be something of a liberated woman. I was not offended by Dibble's comments (as transcribed on the Bog). I watch most games on tv, when I'm not away. As others have noted, I tend to believe that Dibble is an equal opportunity kidder.

Sure, I've gotten up in arms about baseball and women on occasion (see the Phillies starting Myers after the public domestic violence incident in Boston, or the Nats acquiring players who had been charged with perpetrating domestic violence themselves).

I just can't get exercised about a baseball broadcaster seeming to engage in gender stereotyping. Heck, MLB and the Nats gave us Baseball 101 for Women, Ladies Nights with beauty treatments, and pink gear made especially for the ladies. I'm not interested in any of those, but I don't expect the team or MLB to apologize for offering it. I'd also not be surprised (or offended) to learn that some of our players or coaches engaged in gender stereotyping on occasion.

Eh, no. Just can't get to exercised about this one. My virtual pitchfork remains in the corner and my virtual torch it unlit. ;-)b

A Better Way To Play

About me

I'm a former newspaper writer and editor who has taken his skills online as a senior editor at AOL FanHouse (www.fanhouse.com). I'm also a reborn baseball fan. I waited 33 years to get another team in D.C. and finally got my wish - should have thought to ask for a better team while I was begging.